In the event that a guild leader takes a leave of absence and remains inactive for an extended period of time, it can be difficult for some guilds to carry on as normal. To help assist with these situations, we're introducing a new system in patch 4.3 known as "inactive guild leader replacement" that will allow players of the appropriate rank to take over leadership of a guild from an inactive guild leader via the Guild tab.

The way inactive guild leader replacement works is pretty straightforward. If a guild leader’s character is inactive for 30 days, a notification will appear in the Guild News & Events feed which can only be seen by guild members who are eligible to become the new guild leader. To determine eligibility, the game will look for the highest ranked character in the guild that's logged on in the past week, and any guild member from that rank will be able to request guild leadership simply by clicking on the notification.

As with many actions in World of Warcraft, clicking on the notification will open up a confirmation window which, once accepted, will transition leadership from the inactive guild leader to the first player to request leadership. If guild leadership is changed, the old guild leader will be notified via email to his or her registered Battle.net address. While some players may need to log out and back in before their Guild tab will visually update, the change in leadership will be immediate, with all ranks and permissions remaining in-tact.

Please note that if you're an active leader of a guild, this system should not affect you or your guild. The goal of inactive guild leader replacement is simply to allow guilds which have found themselves without leadership for a long period of time to resolve the situation on their own without the need to contact our In-Game Support department.

Inactive guild leader replacement is currently live on the PTR, but keep in mind that it may be difficult to test, as a guild leader will need to be inactive for a full 30 days before the option to transition leadership will become available.

guild leader passes rank 1 status to officer, officer kicks everyone and takes gbank or better yet kicks original leader and leads himself! its the interwebz & cata, after lfd system and all that jazz community and respect sorta died in most parts. people aren't as trustworthy as you think, and if they are well you're lucky

Does the GM have to have just not logged on for 30 days, or his prepaid time has to have been expired for more than 30 days. I've been on vacation / away from the computer for months at a time, so that means I could come back and not have the guild? If that's the case I'll simply just remove everyone except my alts from the guild until I get back, and have my guildies make a temporary guild in the meantime.

To add onto my previous post: If you are in any kind of close-knit, organized guild, you already have systems in place in case the GM ever decides to go AWOL or takes an extended break. This won't be a problem for most guilds.

I would really like to hear how people think this might be abused. Really, give me a single example. The fact is that this is already in-game, you just need to contact a GM to do it, so nothing changes except for the fact that it becomes an interface option instead of you contacting a GM for it. I would actually argue that this system is better, because at the moment GM:s may necessarily not even look at your rank when passing the leadership on, there have been stories about GM:s changing the leadership of a raiding guild to some new trialist just because he was the first to make a ticket about it, this system at least checks the rank of the people making the change. Furthermore, if you are the guild master of a guild where you don't trust your officers enough to handle the guild in your absence then perhaps you should either find new officers or stop being a guild master. The only people against this change are people that are suddenly worried that that level 25 leveling guild they're using to farm cash from with the Cash Flow perk might actually force you to log online once every month. Also, lol at the RL examples, news flash, a guild in wow is in no way comparable to an apartment in real life, you don't have hundreds of people using your apartment daily in real life like bigger guilds do in WoW, furthermore, nothing forces you to lead a guild in wow, however you are more or less forced to have an apartment in real life, the whole comparison is absolutely ridiculous. Even if you have to study or work for 3 months then you either find that 5 minutes per month to log on once, or you pass the leadership to those who care about the guild enough to do so.

Does the GM have to have just not logged on for 30 days, or his prepaid time has to have been expired for more than 30 days. I've been on vacation / away from the computer for months at a time, so that means I could come back and not have the guild? If that's the case I'll simply just remove everyone except my alts from the guild until I get back, and have my guildies make a temporary guild in the meantime.

It is based on how many consecutive days the character who is guild master has been logged off for. And also, from the vacations that you have already taken from the game, if they have been 30+ days of being logged out (and you are a guild master) you did run the risk of having someone put in a ticket to get the guild leadership transferred to them.

Sounds ridiculous, guild leaders won't be able to take a break from WoW.So if they know they're going to come back to WoW someday, they'll have to kick every single member out of the guild so nobody can take the level 25 guild.

I forsee a lot of raging.

Ofc a guildleader can take a longer break, the guildleader just needs to pass the leadership to someone highranking so that the guild can keep functioning. Like in the real world, a wellfunctioning company doesnt remain wellfunctioning without a leader for a longer period of time. Or maybe the soon to be absente leader should fire every employee in the company before he goes absente?

Ofc a guildleader can take a longer break, the guildleader just needs to pass the leadership to someone highranking so that the guild can keep functioning. Like in the real world, a wellfunctioning company doesnt remain wellfunctioning without a leader for a longer period of time. Or maybe the soon to be absente leader should fire every employee in the company before he goes absente?

so if the leader goes on holidays for 30+ days, his job is passed off onto the next guy no questions asked? have you ever had a job?
the boss wont get demoted for his actions - he would come back after a month right back to his boss position.
but with this, he'll come back after a wonderful holiday to dubai only to have to sell his house the week after, his wife leaves him for a richer man, his kids start hating him cause he cant buy them the new BF3 since he got fired.
now, the wife is getting remarried to the once 2ic but now senior executive all thanks to blizzard's new system.

so if the leader goes on holidays for 30+ days, his job is passed off onto the next guy no questions asked? have you ever had a job?
the boss wont get demoted for his actions - he would come back after a month right back to his boss position.
but with this, he'll come back after a wonderful holiday to dubai only to have to sell his house the week after, his wife leaves him for a richer man, his kids start hating him cause he cant buy them the new BF3

Well if he goes on holidays for 30+ days without arranging it with the company then someone else may get his job, yes, as he would basically be quitting under job abandonment. But on the other hand if he arranged it with the company then they would probably get someone else to cover portions of his job (read: guild officers) until he came back.

Sounds ridiculous, guild leaders won't be able to take a break from WoW.So if they know they're going to come back to WoW someday, they'll have to kick every single member out of the guild so nobody can take the level 25 guild.

I forsee a lot of raging.

If a guild leader wants to take an extended break then they need to transfer leadership to someone else. A guild leader doesn't OWN the guild. And if they think they do, I hope all the smart players have left it already.

If you are a boss leading a company you don't suddenly go "I'm taking 6 months off. See you when I get back! No one can take my place in that time!"

Well if he goes on holidays for 30+ days without arranging it with the company then someone else may get his job, yes, as he would basically be quitting under job abandonment. But on the other hand if he arranged it with the company then they would probably get someone else to cover portions of his job (read: guild officers) until he came back.

your missing the point man

with this new system you cant say to blizzard "hey im gona afk for 30 days, plz dont kick me", its all automated and it doesnt matter if you tell everyone or not that your going away for a month - your guild can get taken away from you regardless... there is no arrangements! unless you pass gm to an officer but again! you can be shafted

I think 30 days is a tad short.A lot of people earn a wage which is paid monthly, taking into consideration other costs, some people can't play for a month while they sort their finances.I've had a month away from WoW (While a Guild Master) for very legitimate reasons, and I really don't think this is long enough, Perhaps 45 days would be better suited, as chances are by then, you'll have earned two pay checks and they have a better chance to come back to World of Warcraft.